RIP filmmaker Les Blank, 1935-2013.
Les Blank served as director and cinematographer of dozens of films, mostly documentaries. He’s probably most famous for his 1982 film Burden of Dreams, which chronicles Werner Herzog struggling against nature and humanity alike to make Fitzcarraldo. For me, the two films are inseparable. Here is Blank talking about making that film:
(Les Blank also made Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe).
Blank was also famous for documenting blues, jazz, folk, and other types of roots music in a naturalistic, earthy fashion.
He also loved gap toothed women:
